Day 270..."With friends like this? Not understanding myself!"

What is Job's problem? His friend Eliphaz thinks Job does not fear God enough. Eliphaz counsels Job and says..."Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,for emptiness will be his payment. It will be paid in full before his time,and his branch will not be green. He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery. They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit.” Job wonders..."with friends like this who needs enemies." He responds by saying..."“I have heard many such things;miserable comforters are you all. Shall windy words have an end?" Windy words and miserable comforters are words which are not ringing endorsements for his friends. Another classic verse in Job today the reference to becoming a target..."he set me up as his target; his archers surround me." Job feels so low that he is being used as target practice.

Jeremiah speaks of perpetual backsliding..."Why then has this people turned awayin perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit;they refuse to return." He also sounds like Job when he says..."My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me." He seeks hope when he asks the question that later would become a hymn..."Is there no balm in Gilead?"

Paul asks a couple of questions. 1) Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? Paul does not understand himself. He responds with the reality of the sinful condition...even for him..."For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good." 2) Who will deliver me from this body of death? He responds with the obvious answer..."Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!